While DBD::AnyData recommends explicitly committing by importing and exporting tables,
DBD::File might be enhanced in a future version to allow transparent transactions using the temporary tables of SQL::Statement as shadow (dirty) tables.

SQL::Statement provides dictionary information when a "CREATE TABLE ..." statement is executed.
This dictionary is preserved for some statement handle attribute fetches (as NULLABLE or PRECISION).

It is planned to extend DBD::File to support data dictionaries to work on the tables in it.
It is not planned to support one table in different dictionaries,
but you can have several dictionaries in one directory.

Currently the SQL engine selected is chosen during the loading of the module DBI::SQL::Nano.
Ideally end users should be able to select the engine used in DBI->connect () with a special DBD::File attribute.

Other points of view to the planned features (and more features for the SQL::Statement engine) are shown in SQL::Statement::Roadmap.

Several arguments for support of features like indexes on columns and cursors are made for DBD::CSV (which is a DBD::File based driver,
too).
Similar arguments could be made for DBD::DBM,
DBD::AnyData,
DBD::RAM or DBD::PO etc.

To improve the performance of the underlying SQL engines,
a clean re-implementation seems to be required.
Currently both engines are prematurely optimized and therefore it is not trivial to provide further optimization without the risk of breaking existing features.

Join the DBI developers IRC channel at irc://irc.perl.org/dbi to participate or post to the DBI Developers Mailing List.

It is currently possible to access a table quoted with a relative path (a) and additionally using an absolute path (b).
If (a) and (b) are the same file that is not recognized (except for flock protection handled by the Operating System) and two independent tables are handled.

Our priorities are focused on current issues. Initially many new test cases for DBD::File and DBD::DBM should be added to the DBI test suite. After that some additional documentation on how to use the DBD::File API will be provided.

Any additional priorities will come later and can be modified by (paying) users.

If your company has benefited from DBI, please consider if it could make a donation to The Perl Foundation "DBI Development" fund at http://dbi.perl.org/donate to secure future development.

Alternatively, if your company would benefit from a specific new DBI feature, please consider sponsoring it's development through the options listed in the section "Commercial Support from the Author" on http://dbi.perl.org/support/.

Using such targeted financing allows you to contribute to DBI development and rapidly get something specific and directly valuable to you in return.

My company also offers annual support contracts for the DBI, which provide another way to support the DBI and get something specific in return. Contact me for details.